faith and trust in the functioning of Totality (1)

[Guest guest]

There's a Zen saying, "When you carry water, carry water."

 

Yes! Just as one Zen master said, "If you want enlightenment, go and wash dishes." Meaning, when you wash dishes, do not wash dishes with your hands while your mind is wandering all over.

 

With resentment.

 

That is not washing dishes. The sage, the wise man, has the basic working and living attitude of respectful trust towards nature and human nature, despite war, revolutions, starvation, rising crime and all manner of horrors. He is not concerned with the notion of an original sin, nor does he have the feeling that existence, samsara itself, is a disaster. His basic understanding has the premise that if you cannot trust nature and other people, you cannot trust yourself.

Without this underlying trust, the faith in the functioning of Totality, the whole system of nature, we are simply paralysed. Ultimately, it is not really a matter of you on the one hand, and trusting nature on the other. It is really a matter of realising that we and nature are one and the same process, not separate entities. You cannot omit one integer without upsetting the entire system. ... (to be continued tomorrow)

 

 

Conversations with Ramesh S. Balsekar

 

 

 

 

Consciousness Speaks (Ramesh S Balsekar) published by

 

Advaita Press

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Redondo Beach CA 90277

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www.advaita.org